


towards Tadfield forever

by nagia



Series: The House That Bark Built [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Claudia Stilinski, Gen, Genre: Boy and his dog, Hale Family Feels, Stilinski Family Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-12
Updated: 2014-04-12
Packaged: 2018-01-19 03:33:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1453885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagia/pseuds/nagia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scenes and events from the six years Stiles Stilinski grows up with Derek Hale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	towards Tadfield forever

Two weeks before school started, Mom took Bark to Dr. Deaton's clinic. She came home with a tense, pinched cast to her lips, and Derek made himself scarce that night, like he thought Mom was going to be mad at him over whatever Dr. Deaton said. Stiles had noticed that Derek seemed to think a lot of things were his fault.

But Mom's bad mood wasn't Derek's fault. That weekend, they had a retirement party for Bark.

"He's only eight," Dad said. "You sure about this?"

"Cardiac arrhythmia," Mom said, and gave Derek a raw, meaty bone to give to Bark. Lona poked her nose up over the table, apparently curious about the pizza, and Mom said, firmly, "Fe."

Lona ducked her head and slunk away from the table, only to settle down with her head on Stiles's shoe.

* * *

When school started, Mom gave Derek the keys to the Jeep, and Derek wound up driving Stiles to school and picking him up in the afternoons.

Their lives settled into a routine: go to school, go home, do homework at the kitchen table. Stiles read some of Derek's AP Stats homework questions and then went back to his own stuff. It wasn't that he didn't want to be able to do math above his grade level — but stats looked weird and complicated, and his AP US History stuff looked a lot more interesting. 

As the weather turned wetter and colder, Derek started plopping his hoodies onto Stiles's shoulders as soon as Stiles made it to the Jeep. Depending on the shifts, either Mom or Dad would wander in around seven and ruffle both their hair, and then they would all start dinner togther. After that, Stiles played with Bark, and Derek would tease Lona with her Jolly Ball, and then eventually it would be bedtime.

Laura came home every weekend (and Derek made her wear his shirts and hoodies while she was home), and once a month, Mom would take the Hales to the Preserve.

* * *

The first Thanksgiving was rough. Stiles had grown used to having Derek around, and Laura had come home most weekends, but it was the first Thanksgiving without their family. Laura came home the day before, and both she and Derek vanished all Wednesday night. They returned in the first hours of Thursday morning amidst Bark and Lona barking and howling, with a deer carcass on the hood of Laura's camaro. 

Dad ambled out of the house and stared at the Hales and their car. He was silent a long moment, before he finally shook his head. "Did the two of you kill that?" 

Laura grinned and didn't say anything.

"You do realize that's poaching, right?" 

"It was on our land," Derek replied. 

"Can you prove that?" 

Neither Derek nor Laura had an answer for Dad's question. 

After a long silence, Dad said, "Alright, get it in the back yard. Did anyone see the two of you with that thing on your roof?" 

"Don't think so," Laura said. 

"I'll look the other way this once. Just don't do this again," Dad told her, sighing. 

As they went — Laura's smile brittle, and Derek looking pale and gut-punched — Dad wondered, "Claudi, what the hell do I do with a dead buck?" 

Mom just laughed.

* * *

If Thanksgiving had been bad, Christmas was worse. Derek and Laura wound up spending most of the day out at their family's gravesites, and it was hard to work up excitement over presents and pie for breakfast when his parents were on edge and the Hales were so morose.

They didn't even find out until after the new year that Christmas Day had also been Derek's seventeenth birthday.

When Stiles thought about it, it made sense. Of course Derek hadn't mentioned his birthday.

* * *

After the party Mom and Laura foisted on Derek, the new year settled into the same routine. Gradually, the year warmed, and Stiles began to look forward to summer. Derek seemed to get more and more lost in his own head the closer summer grew. Stiles suspected it was because they were coming up on the year anniversary, but he didn't want to ask anybody while Derek was around to hear.

A week before the anniversary, Derek stopped talking again. He went to school — Stiles was out for the summer by then and spending most of his time with the dogs and Mrs. Brzezicki — and came home without saying goodbye or hello. He ate dinner without saying anything all, read Dad's books but ignored Dad's questions.

But Mom and Dad both left him alone, let him handle whatever he was feeling however he wanted to handle it.

Derek and Laura spent the anniversary of the fire alone with Mom and Lona. Stiles and Dad cleared out of the house; they took Bark to the lake in the Preserve for some fishing.


End file.
